Problem with Jacquard bottles

I've been working with henna since 2008. This is the first time I've ever had an issue with Jacquard bottles and I wanted to see if any of you had similar horror stories from using them. I was working on a client today, the bottle clogged and at first I saw it as nothing, cleaned the tip and moved on. Nothing would come out, and I mean nothing. I tried transferring the bottles, changing tips, cleaning the connector to the tip, everything. The bottle was full and the henna was perfect consistency. What's worse was that at one point the henna exploded as I tried getting it to work. I was horrified and extremely embarrassed. Did anyone ever had this kind of issue with these bottles? and if so, what did you do to correct the problem? I don't want to risk this happening again, I'm seriously considering hennaing with solely cones from this point on. I have a show next Wednesday and would love feedback before then please so I can correct this issue. Thank you!

I'm new to henna, but bought bottles as a 'starter' tool to play around with, and I've found them pretty inconsistent at best. It seems easy to get pressure built up in them and have a 'blowout' and then after all the 'blob' that was gumming up the works comes out it takes a bit to feed more henna into the tip. I find as a guy the bottles are too small to use comfortably as well, so while my Ms. might like to use them some I've given up on them and gotten a nice selection of carrot bags and cones.

I have to agree I don't think gender plays much of a role in applicator choice I have to say the two male henna people (neither really deserve the title of artist, not because of skill but because of other issues) they both use jac bottles. Some people can handle them some can't. I tried a jac bottle and couldn't stand it but my hands are pretty messed up so...

Thank you all for the suggestions and sharing your experiences. I think what happened in my case was the applicator bottle might have warped causing too much air to get into the bottles. I live in the high desert, and the transition from the cold fridge to the extreme heat might have been too much for them to handle. Do you think that's possible?

Anyways, I gave the cones a shot. It took a little bit of practice to roll them correctly, but since that hennaing with them was a breeze. However, there was a little issue trying to find the materials locally, especially mylar. I found cellophane at Michaels, but where would you find mylar? I would like to try both to see which one would suit me better.

Mylar gets harder and harder to find all the time! It used to be that you could find big rolls at christmas time and I would go stock up... yep, that looney lady at walmart with a cart completely full of shiny gift wrap -that's me. Anyway, it seems to have fallen out of fashion and I can only find it online.

You could try different thicknesses of cello though! For example, floral wrap, and gift basket wrap have a completely different feel.

Ya, I think if you had an air leak in your bottle that could have been at least part of the problem.

I find rolls of mylar gift wrap at the dollar store, usually Dollar Tree, but sometimes at others. They are more common at Christmas time, but I saw some just last week. The gold and silver are best. Any other colors run onto my fingers from the alcohol I use to cleanse the skin before applying henna.